Pharmaceutical Strategic Purchasing: a Key to Improve Access to Medicines

Department of Pharmacoeconomic and Pharma management, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals are often considered as the most significant cost driver of health care expenditures and at the same time have a major impact on patients’ curative processes and outcomes. Other pieces of evidence emphasize that drugs are the input for the production of good health. They are considered as the most important and expensive element in the healthy supply chain and are more associated with the management and economics rather than other factors. So, the availability of the relevant, effective, and payable drugs at the time of need and their rapid diffusion at affordable prices are important indicators of the utilization of health services. They can be considered as the most visible determinant of quality and the major driver source of the phenomenal increase in longevity of the human race over the past decades.